On Friday 2 December a conference celebrating the achievements of Michael Coper will be held in the Common Room, University House. Michael is a “big picture” person whose vision has always focused on the future. The conference’s title, “New Ways Forward”, with its tone of energy and optimism, could not be more fitting for an event celebrating the career of Michael Coper and reinforcing the continuing beneficial effects of his achievements.

Many millions of words will be written on the ascendancy of Donald Trump. Much of it will be beside the point. We cannot talk about what the American voters were trying to "communicate", or what "policies" they supported. It is surely clear by now that voting has nothing whatsoever to do with communication, the use of words to convey a coherent or rational idea with someone else. Rather it is about expression.

Upcoming events

This reading group, convened by author and philosopher of aesthetics Robyn Ferrell, now an Adjunct Professor with the Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities, will excavate the history of critical theory from Benjamin and Adorno, with a focus on theoretical work by leading figures in recent years and on contemporary issues of the most urgent importance.

This reading group, convened by author and philosopher of aesthetics Robyn Ferrell, now an Adjunct Professor with the Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities, will excavate the history of critical theory from Benjamin and Adorno, with a focus on theoretical work by leading figures in recent years and on contemporary issues of the most urgent importance.

This reading group, convened by author and philosopher of aesthetics Robyn Ferrell, now an Adjunct Professor with the Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities, will excavate the history of critical theory from Benjamin and Adorno, with a focus on theoretical work by leading figures in recent years and on contemporary issues of the most urgent importance.

This reading group, convened by author and philosopher of aesthetics Robyn Ferrell, now an Adjunct Professor with the Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities, will excavate the history of critical theory from Benjamin and Adorno, with a focus on theoretical work by leading figures in recent years and on contemporary issues of the most urgent importance.

This reading group, convened by author and philosopher of aesthetics Robyn Ferrell, now an Adjunct Professor with the Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities, will excavate the history of critical theory from Benjamin and Adorno, with a focus on theoretical work by leading figures in recent years and on contemporary issues of the most urgent importance.

Past events

This reading group, convened by author and philosopher of aesthetics Robyn Ferrell, now an Adjunct Professor with the Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities, will excavate the history of critical theory from Benjamin and Adorno, with a focus on theoretical work by leading figures in recent years and on contemporary issues of the most urgent importance.

The word crisis comes from the Greek word for a turning-point, as in a disease, or a moment of decision. The contemporary crisis manifests itself as a failure of decision, of accountability, and of discourse on critical issues ranging from migration and climate change to global inequality.

This reading group, convened by author and philosopher of aesthetics Robyn Ferrell, now an Adjunct Professor with the Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities, will excavate the history of critical theory from Benjamin and Adorno, with a focus on theoretical work by leading figures in recent years and on contemporary issues of the most urgent importance.

Please note, only a small selection of recent publications and activities are listed below.

Current courses

Previous courses

Past courses

How my works connects with public policy

There is a crisis in law today. At best we think of it as a technical power imposed on society that tells us what to do. At worst we think of it as fundamentally unjust and corrupt. We can address this crisis by improving our processes of law-making and law-enforcing. But we can also address this crisis by radically shifting how we think about law – what it is and how it relates to us and to the rest of our lives. What if law was not just ‘out there’ like a machine; but ‘in here’ like a person or a memory? What if law was not just made by lawyers and politicians – but a product of all of us through how we thought, saw, and spoke about it?

One of the most innovative areas of legal scholarship in recent years has been law and the humanities. Its goal is to re-connect law to its roots in the humanities: in history, the arts, literature, philosophy. By studying how law is represented culturally in our society, we can gain crucial insights into its origins, its functions, and its problems. We can give to law a relevance that it often seems to lack – by taking seriously ideas of law and justice in the work of Plato or Shakespeare and equally on the screen, on the box and on the web. And we can give back to law a sense of its ethical and human dimensions – breaking down that sense of law as a coercive (even amoral) system outside of us and unrelated to us and encouraging instead a more engaged social dialogue about what we mean by responsibility and tolerance in the modern world.